'Create Dangerously,' by Edwidge Danticat

ESSAYS

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, October 10, 2010

Create Dangerously

The Immigrant Artist at Work

By Edwidge Danticat

The devastating earthquake in Haiti lends her voice more urgency, but Edwidge Danticat's essays about the immigrant artist's balancing act need no natural disaster to seem relevant. Jean Dominique, a veteran Haitian radio commentator who was assassinated in 2000, tells Danticat: "The Dyaspora are people with feet planted in both worlds. There's no need to be ashamed of that."

"Create Dangerously" is a sort of literary therapy to shake off that nagging feeling of shame even as (or perhaps because) you are applauded for your literary talents. As an immigrant artist, are you also an ambassador of your people or a betrayer of their confidences? "People talk," her aunt tells her. "They say everything they say to you ends up written down somewhere." Danticat bows her head in shame. (Of course, that story too ends up in an essay.)

But while the immigrant writer struggles with telling too much, she is also at risk of forgetting too much. Danticat writes about the sabliyes, or forgetting trees, which were supposed to remove the past (and the desire to go home) from the heads of slaves. Immigration, in some ways, can be the writer's sabliye, especially if the past is as traumatic as Haiti's.

Danticat is a marvelous writer, blending personal anecdotes, history and larger reflections without turning the immigrant writer into a victim, misunderstood by all. One only wishes Danticat had used the essays as building blocks for a more complex meditation on the immigrant writer's place in society. This collection is food for thought, but leaves one hungry for a full meal.